The Big Empty
by Dalva
Summary: The Nightmare Before Christmas + 2 Stone Temple Pilots songs + a freaky dream + sleep deprivation = madness! "I like madness!" Somewhat dark, might scare the kiddies.


Disclaimer: Nightmare characters are not mine. "Big Empty" and "Long Way Home" are not mine. No money involved here.  
  
Author's note: Oke, I'm gonna give you a little background on this fic. It started out to be a very lame fic just like my other serious ones, based on STP's "Big Empty". I got a little bored with it, so I put off writing it till yesterday, when I had a dream that inspired most of it. I figured that the best things are written when you get them in your sleep, so I wrote right after waking up from this dream and it turned out to resemble "Long Way Home" more than it did "Big Empty. Didn't go back to sleep. Got 2 1/2 hours for this piece of crap. Hehe. Um, anyway, the dream was a little different from the fic itself. I couldn't see the "spirit keeper" very well, so I had to combine what I saw in the dream with myself. Keep in mind that I do not wear black capes, my features are not vampiric (if that's even a word) and my eyes do not glow. Oh yeah, and it was supposed to end with Sally swinging across the bell and nearly falling to a very gruesome death, but that sounded corny. So here it is. A rather dark fic written by me. Didn't think I had it in me, but apparently I did. Also, you can skip past everything until you get to the line break (~*~). That's just me trying to deal with my problems. Has barely any affect on the plot. K, let's get on with the fic so I can stop talking now. Yeah, that's even better!  
  
Big Empty  
  
Sally sat in the car, staring blankly out the window. She was trying to comprehend all that had happened within the last hour. She & Jack had gone to a coffee house in town, accompanied by what had started out as a pleasant conversation. After a while Jack had brought up that he thought there was something different about Sally, & that he didn't like it. Naturally, she had no idea what he was talking about. She didn't feel any different. Sally learned today, though, that it's not a good idea to tell Jack any differently, as it leads to disaster. Both basically blew everything out of proportion after this, accusing each other of disinterest in their relationship. And now here they sat, driving home with an eerie silence about them.  
  
Though her stare was blank, a million thoughts were racing through her mind. She couldn't believe that she & Jack had blown up at each other; they'd never fought before. She was still baffled about how she had changed. Even IF she had changed at all, or if Jack was just being bizarre. She wondered what was on his mind, not only at the moment, but what had been all day. She inquired of him, "Jack, what's on your mind?" barely turning her head to ask him.  
  
"Oh...well, nothing really. Nothing we haven't already discussed." Lie #1.  
  
Sally didn't even bother replying. That might worsen the situation. Of course, that didn't stop anything. Jack continued:  
  
"I just don't know why I can't simply state my feelings without you getting mad."  
  
"I wasn't mad," Sally replied. "I just didn't think it was right for you to say some of the things you said. And just because you think something's wrong doesn't mean there is."  
  
This time Jack chose to stay silent. Somewhere in there, there could've been a chance for apology, but it was a little late now. They were almost home anyway, so it didn't make much difference. Soon they were parked outside their unusual mansion-like house, & went inside. Jack went straight up to his room. Sally watched him until he was shut in, then did the instinctive thing--ran away to collect her thoughts  
  
~*~  
  
Upon reaching the graveyard, Sally found a rather large tombstone & climbed up on it. She looked around, then settled her gaze on the moon hanging over the curly mountain. It was extra bright tonight, & there's nothing more relaxing than staring at a big bright moon. A few minutes later, as Sally was finally more at-ease, she continued looking around the graveyard. Something to the right of where she was sitting caught her eye; it was a grave-portal-door thingy, much like the one Jack used to enter back into Halloweentown that Christmas night. She had never noticed it before. She jumped off the tombstone to investigate. She opened the doors & peered inside. Seeing nothing but black, she shrugged & stepped inside the entrance. Sally was now in the middle of a landscape that looked like a cross between a forest & a field. Still just as dark as Halloweentown, if not darker. She wondered where she was, and, seeing a figure sitting on the ground not too far away from her, decided to ask. She walked up to this figure & leaned over to determine its gender. It was a girl, who was staring up at the moon with a blank smile on her face. Sally couldn't make much else out. Finally she asked somewhat quietly, "Um, excuse me, could you tell me where I am?"  
  
The girl woke up from her trance-like state, looked up at Sally and, looking a little shocked, stood up. Sally got a better look at the girl. She looked like she was about 16 or 17, standing at about Sally's height. She wore a black hooded cape; wisps of purple hair hung in her face from underneath the hood. Her eyes were a shocking shade of blue, rimmed in black, & seemed to glow a little, casting a blue shade over her pale skin. Her features were almost vampiric.  
  
The girl spoke, smiling almost eviiily. "That's no important. What IS important is that you're the first person I've seen in...well, quite a while. Since I started a sort of project of mine. I'm sort of reclusive, you see..." Sally was about to say something, most likely "bye," when the girl continued. "Anyway, follow me. There's something you should see." Reluctantly, Sally followed. The 2 walked along a little path lined with twisted trees, which seemed to rise from the ground like black flames. [A/N: almost as bad as Emmie's "pools of deep green." Heehee :^D] After walking what seemed like quite a few miles, they came upon what looked like a very old tower, with a bell at the top & everything. Just sitting there in the middle of nowhere. Sally was more than a little confused at this point. Soon they entered the tower.   
  
Inside, Sally found that the tower was pretty much empty. Stairs spiralled around the round walls. Of course, there was the bell at the top as well. She also noticed there was a quite impressive canopy of spiderwebs looming overhead that seemed to separate the tower into layers. Apparently dust had settled on top of this canopy, & every now & then an unseen force would shake the web, causing dust to fall on Sally. The walls were glowing slightly, the same color as the girl's eyes.  
  
Sally spoke. "So...what's in this room?"  
  
The girl relied, smiling that same slighty eviiil grin of hers. "Spirits. My 'collection', I guess you could say."  
  
Sally paused. "As in, ghost spirits?" Despite the fact that she lived in Halloweentown, Sally had never come in contact with a ghost, aside from Zero. She was somewhat intrigued.  
  
"Yes, as in ghost spirits," the girl said. "And if I were you, I would keep my voice low. They don't like strangers."  
  
At this point, Sally thought the girl was nuts. She decided to play along, though. In a quieter voice, she said, "Good diea. I don't want to disturb them."  
  
"Exactly. Don't even move, just in case."  
  
Sally felt something brush up forcefully against her shoulder, but she didn't see what it was. She started to believe this girl a little more. "Quite pushy, aren't they?" she whispered.  
  
"Oh, very. You see, they thrive upon fear & pain. Or they will, at least; you're the first person with whom they've come in contact, aside from me. They've been here since they were created, building up energy by just being in an enclosed space together. When they get enough energy to go out into the rest of the world, they'll cause so much destruction it won't even be funny. Trust me, you don't want one of these guys on your bad side." She then turned to her right, as if listening to someone talking, then turned back to Sally & said, "Oh, too late." Her smile this time was completely eviiil. Sally's eyes widened. The girl responded to this, "Don't worry, he'll give you a head start. He's nice to guinea pigs."   
  
Sally froze for a couple seconds, unsure of what to do. Taking the hint, the girl motioned towards the beginning of the stairs. "Go. Now!" She hissed.  
  
Sally then started running up the stairs built into the tower walls, completely ignoring the fact that they were glowing that strange shade of blue. The entrance to the tower had somehow disappeared. Reaching the top, she heard the girl's voice echo, "You've got 30 seconds. Better hurry." She managed to climb down the wall, thanks to the oversized rocks used as building material, and started running back towards the entrance to Halloweentown, not stopping to wonder from what exactly she was running. She could feel the presence of this spirit not far behind her, & hoped it could only exist in this particular dimension or world or whatever the heck it was. Thanking adrenaline for allowing her to run faster when she's scared, Sally soon neared the portal and went through, making sure to shut it tightly. She then continued running towards her home, not even looking back. When she reached the door, she realized that it was locked. "Jack! Hurry, open the door!" she yelled. He did so, and she all but collapsed into his arms, completely exhausted & sobbing. After recovering somewhat, she spoke. "Jack, I'm so sorry for the fight earlier."  
  
"Sally, don't worry about that now. What just happened?" he asked, quite concerned. He led her upstairs to their bedroom to talk about it, his long bony arm around her.  
  
Unfortunately, though, Sally forgot what the girl said about the spirits: "They thrive upon fear..."  
  
The end! 


End file.
